Help Regarding WLAN Setup ....

[sandeep_talan]

Hi .. My name is Sandeep ...
I've purchased a Alfa AWUS036H USB Adapter .. to connect through wireless connection in Linux..
I'm using Redhat Linux on my system .. I'm completely new to Linux .. I had never used Linux Before ...
Now I want to setup my USB card in monitor mode ...

So I need help regarding foloowing topics ...

1) How to make new wlan setup ... like how to setup "wlan0" on my Linux ...
2) Where can I get drivers for my USB adapter
3) How can I install those drivers.
4) How can I configure aircrack-ng for my card to get it in monitoring mode.

The steps which I had gone through are :

I've checked through "lsusb" ... It is showing my usb card like this :

"Bus 001 Device 004 :ID obda:8187 Realtek Semi......................"

Now then I go to "System-->Administration-->Network"

It shows a window with all present connections ...
Then I click on "NEW" button for a new wireless connection ....
It opens a new window to setup connection .. there is a side menu .. which contains various option including Ethernet LAN and New Wireless Connection .......
I had chosen New Wireless Connection .... then it opens a window ..
"Select Wireless Device" ... there it is showing only one option ...
"Other Wireless Card" ...
so I think ..It must show my USB adapter here so that I can select it but is not showing ..may be bcoz it's drive is not installed ....

So plz tell me weather I'm following the right steps or not ....
Plz provide me drivers for this card ...
I'm really stuck in this .. and needs help ASAP ....

Thanks in Advance ....

[reed9]

This should probably be in the wireless or Red Hat sections?

Anyway, it appears you have the rtl8187 card. The kernel used by Red Hat does not have support for this card. The drivers weren't included until kernel 2.6.23, and Red Hat still uses what, 2.6.18, I think. Is there a particular reason you're using Red Hat? It is not a general purpose desktop distribution.

That said, you may be able to get it working using ndiswrapper and windows drivers. I've seen a couple of references that the win98 drivers work better for this than the win xp drivers.

I don't think Red Hat has ndiswrapper installed, so you'll have to get it either by enabling the rpmforge repo, or you can search and download the package from rpmbone.

The Arch Linux Wiki has some good info on getting the win98 drivers and using ndiswrapper, that's mostly applicable to any distro. Ignore any reference to pacman or /etc/rc.conf.

To make the ndiswrapper module load every time you boot, I think you need to add it to /etc/rc.modules.

[sandeep_talan]

thanks for replying ...

yes you are right ... I'm using RedHat Linux and its kernel version is 2.6.18 ...

Is it possible that I can patch my kernal to latest one... like 2.6.23 or latest ...

How can I do that .... and after that .. I think I will be needing ... the RTL8187 Patch...

Do I need to setup a "wlan" connection before installing this driver ... or it is automatically done by the driver ...

Thanks ...

[reed9]

Once you have the correct drivers/firmware installed, you can set up a wireless connection with your network as normal.

I would try ndiswrapper before thinking of compiling a custom kernel. I've never compiled or patched a kernel, so I can't help you there. Again, unless you have a compelling reason to use Red Hat, an easier method would be to use a distro that supports your card out of the box, like Fedora, Red Hat's community desktop distribution.

[sandeep_talan]

As you had told .. I've first installed "ndiswrapper" then windows drivers in my Redhat Linux ...
Now when I do "modprobe ndiswrapper" on startup of system .. and then "iwconfig" ... it shows ... a "wlan0" in list ...
but when I do "ifconfig" it do not shows "wlan0" .. I can't figure out why is it so ...

Also when I do "ndiswrapper -l" ... It shows ... "driver installed" and "8187 connected"...

I think that means my driver is installed ...
but how can use internet through it now ... what I have to do now ... You have mentioned about "Firmware" ... what is this and do I need to install this utility also ... please explain me the whole procedure...

Also there is one more problem ... every time I starts my system .. I've to manually start the drivers by using this command ...
"modprobe ndiswrapper" .. Is there any way so that the driver automatically loads on startup ....

Thanks for replying ......

[waterhead]

After installing the network driver, you still need to configure the device. You can open the "Network" program from the menu, or start it with this command.

system-config-network

Click on the wireless device to highlight it, then click on "Edit". Here you can give it the default settings. When done, exit save the new settings. Then click the "Activate" button.

You usually don't want a wireless to be activated at boot. Wireless connections usually need a password, and they will just hang up and make the boot process longer.

RHEL does not have a wireless connection manager. I recommend installing Wicd.

wicd - home

You should be able to follow the Fedora instructions, found on this page:
Wicd on FC9 - Wicd Wiki

Change one thing. It is an older How-To, so it links to an older version of Wicd. To get the latest version, use this command.

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/wicd/wicd-1.5.9.tar.gz

Change the instructions to use your version (wicd-1.5.9).

[sandeep_talan]

Hey thanx for all your suggesions ...

I've dropped the Idea of using Red Hat Linux .. Now I'm using Ubuntu 9.04ver
But I've encountered a problem in using Aircrack-ng on Ubuntu 9.04ver.

.................................................. .................................................. .................

I've started using aircrack-ng on ubuntu .. around a weak ago, in starting .. it was working very much fine...
It was displaying the data packates in Airodump-ng and also it was capturing that data, I've also cracked my AP's WEP Key through it...
But now it is showing the AP in upper list of airodump.. but not showing any client... connected to the AP...
I'm using Alfa USB card which contains rtl8187 chip, I just direct pluged the usb card and it is detected by Ubuntu and drivers are not needed to install..so it directly connects to internet by serching for Ap's.. Now when i do :::

airmon-ng start wlan0

It creates an extra interface in monitore mode.... "mon0" ... so I was able to connect to internet on wlan0 and and I was able to capture data through mon0 using airodump-ng.

Airodump-ng was capturing whatever I was browsing through wlan0 which was connected thrrough internet ... and It was also capturing the packates of other PC's connected to my AP.
But now the problem is ... I'm able to use Internet correctly .. whenever I starts airodump-ng on "mon0" It disables my internet, and I'm not able to capture anything.....

I've also tried with two systems and two diff cards .. one for monitoring and one for browsing internet ..
I've placed wlan0 in monitor mode by this command ... "iwconfig wlan0 mode monitor" and then started airodump-ng on this interface ..
Then I connected to my AP through another card in another system ... but It is not showing the card in "airodump-ng" .. although it is still showing the AP ...

Out of range cannot be the reason because both of my systems and cards are placed on the same desk...

Now I'm stuck into this because ... I'm not able to figure what to do ...
Plz help me through this ...

Thanx....

[waterhead]

...I'm actually using aircrack-ng for my college project on Wi-Fi Encryption...

Sorry, no homework questions allowed.

Please read the Forum Rules.

[sandeep_talan]

Sorry, no homework questions allowed.

Please read the Forum Rules.

Ok.... Fine .... I've omitted that line ...

and Why you people can't help for College projects ... ????

This forum is only for industry persons ...!!!!! .. who can use this "aircrack-ng" ... for commercial purpose .. which is illegal ..

I'm trying to use it for research purpose .. then you are not ready to help ..

Or you simply don't know the answer....

[waterhead]

I don't run this forum and I didn't make the rules. I believe the reason behind the "No Homework Questions" rule is to make the student do their own homework, and not have the good people at the forum do it for them.

I also don't use Aircrack. In most countries is illegal to access a private connection, without the owners permission. If not illegal, it most certainly is unethical. I see no reason to use something that will run me afoul of the law. And since I do not use it, no, I don't have an answer.

Please don't cop a negative attitude about this. I was just pointing out that the rules do not allow homework questions. I did not delete or censor your posts in any way. I also did not admonish you for trying to crack into private network connections. If you had not mentioned that it was for a college project, I simply would not have responded to any aircrack question.